Two jehadis killed
in Israeli strikeJerusalem, March 17
At least two Islamic Jihad activists were killed and 14 other Palestinians, including three children, injured in an Israeli air strike on a house on the outskirts of the city.

Palestinian gunmen hold AK-47 rifles during the funeral of two Palestinians killed in Gaza city on Wednesday.
— Reuters photo

NBC plays CIA tape showing Bin LadenWashington, March 17A US television network aired a secret video recorded by unmanned spy drones over Afghanistan one year before the
September 11 attacks showing a tall man believed to be Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

New UK rules to curb illegal immigrationLondon, March 17In a bid to prevent illegal immigration, Britain has unveiled a set of new regulations, which will come into force on May 1, as part of a comprehensive, cross-government effort to tackle the problem.

Russia blast toll 50Arkhangelsk, March 17The death toll in a gas leak blast at an apartment here reached 50 today as rescuers prepared to give up their search for survivors who could still be buried under the rubble.

Toll in Pakistani operation against
militants is 39Islamabad, March 17
With seven more Pakistani soldiers succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the military operation against suspected
Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan rose to 39 today.

China's guided missile destroyer "Harbin" participates in the joint maritime exercises
with the French navy on Tuesday. The drills that lasted about eight hours and involved about 700
seamen are so far the largest of this kind held by the Chinese and any foreign navy.
— AP/PTI

Burnt military vehicles are seen in Kaloosha near South Waziristan, some
360 km southwest of Islamabad, on Wednesday. Blackened wrecks of military vehicles littered the roads and some were still burning on Wednesday after fierce clashes between Pakistani forces and suspected
Al-Qaeda militants and local tribesmen sheltering them.
— Reuters photo

Jerusalem, March 17
At least two Islamic Jihad activists were killed and 14 other Palestinians, including three children, injured in an Israeli air strike on a house on the outskirts of the city.

The house, located near the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City’s northern Nasser neighbourhood, was targeted and air-to-surface missiles
were fired upon from helicopter gunships last night because of the presence of some militants involved in terror attacks against Israel, military sources said.

The Israeli retaliatory action came hours after the security cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, voted in favour of strong measures against Palestinian militants, including stepping up targeted assassinations, in response to Sunday’s double suicide attack at the Ashdod port in which 10 Israelis were killed.

The army is likely to send troops to the Strip soon to start ground operations to dismantle the terror network.

Local media identified the two killed in the attack as Hosni Salfiti and Nasser Yassin. One of the injured is said to be in a serious condition.

The target of the strike reportedly was Muhammad Haroubi, a senior Islamic Jihad operative. Haroubi was apparently not killed in the missile strike, but it was not clear whether he was wounded or managed to escape unharmed.

The Hamas website, however, reported that Haroubi was, in fact killed in the Gaza missile strike.

Reacting to the attacks, a senior official at the Prime Minister’s Office said “Israel is obligated to take the necessary defensive measures to protect its people, until the Palestinians put an end to such terror.”
— PTI

Washington, March 17
A US television network aired a secret video recorded by unmanned spy drones over Afghanistan one year before the September 11 attacks showing a tall man believed to be Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

NBC News, which played the video, said the video was taken in the third quarter of 2000 by unarmed Predator spy planes that flew over known Al-Qaeda training camps.

The pictures, transmitted live to the CIA headquarters outside Washington, showed Al-Qaeda fighters firing at targets, conducting military drills, and then scattering on cue through the desert.

The footage, aired on Monday, also shows a tall figure in flowing white robes that many analysts believe is Bin Laden.

“You see a tall man. You see him surrounded by or at least protected by a group of guards,” William Arkin, a former intelligence officer and now military
analyst, said.

According to NBC, the video was shot at Tarnak Farm, the walled compound where Bin Laden was known to live.

The buildings layout in the video matches secret US intelligence photos and diagrams of Tarnak Farm, it said.

It proves the Clinton government was aggressively tracking Al-Qaeda a year before September 11, said the NBC.

LONDON: Osama bin Laden is not hiding in Pakistan as its military has “virtually sealed the border” with Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat claimed on Wednesday.

Participating in the BBC World programme, “Hardtalk Pakistan”, Faisal Saleh Hayat said: “We do not believe Bin Laden is in Pakistan because if he had been in Pakistan, certainly by now in view of the nature of the operations, the scale of the operations which have been initiated and conducted over the past two years, certainly he would have been apprehended”.
— PTI, AFP

London, March 17
In a bid to prevent illegal immigration, Britain has unveiled a set of new regulations, which will come into force on May 1, as part of a comprehensive, cross-government effort to tackle the problem.

This includes strengthened border controls, increased enforcement activity to tackle illegal working and crack down on organised criminal networks who bring in such workers, Home Secretary David Blunkett said last night.

“Illegal working is a modern day slave trade run by organised criminals. It exploits vulnerable people, undermines fair business competition and the minimum wage, deprives the economy of tax and national insurance contributions and acts as a pull factor for illegal immigration to the UK.

“The government is taking action — increasing the number of enforcement operations, enhancing the powers of immigration officers to raid business premises and investing in the multi-agency taskforce, Reflex, to disrupt the people — smuggling gangs behind this trade,” Blunkett said.

The British Government was also reviewing the enforcement work of the Immigration Service, he added.

Terming illegal working as a serious crime, Blunkett said Britain was also considering to increase the penalty for employers who flouted the law.

“Illegal working cannot be tackled by the government alone, and we have been working closely with employers and unions to draw up these measures”, which would come into force on May 1, he said.
— PTI

Arkhangelsk, March 17
The death toll in a gas leak blast at an apartment here reached 50 today as rescuers prepared to give up their search for survivors who could still be buried under the rubble. “Unfortunately, it is unlikely that survivors will be found but there is always hope,” Yury Vorobyov of the emergencies ministry said. Meanwhile, the police continued its hunt for two men who caused the explosion by allegedly removing bronze fittings from the gas pipe in order to peddle them off as scrap metal.— AFP

Islamabad, March 17
With seven more Pakistani soldiers succumbing to injuries, the death toll in the military operation against suspected
Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan rose to 39 today.

The clash occurred yesterday when Pakistani troops raided a militant hideout in remote South Waziristan tribal region. Seven soldiers, who were injured during heavy exchange of fire, later died in hospital, bringing the toll to 39, officials were quoted as saying.
— PTI

BRIEFLY

2 die in Vietnam
war bomb blast
HANOI: Two persons were killed and two others seriously injured in Vietnam while trying to salvage the metal casing and explosives from a US-made bomb dropped during the Vietnam War, the police said on Wednesday. The accident happened in the southern province of Phu Yen when the men, who were all farmers, were sawing the munition in half.
— AFP

Boy survives
father’s attack
ADELANTO (CALIFORNIA): A young boy survived his father’s killing spree by pretending to play dead after the man killed his wife, wounded the boy and then shot himself, the authorities said. Aaron Kinard was eating cookies and drinking milk when his father shot him and his mother on Sunday.
— AP

Conan Doyle’s
papers found
LONDON: A lost hoard of personal papers belonging to British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, has been found in London, auction house Christie’s said. The collection contains 3,000 items which went missing during a legal dispute over the writer’s estate following his death in 1930, Christie’s said on Tuesday.
— AFP

Fresh bird flu
outbreaks reported
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has detected three more outbreaks of the potentially deadly H5N1 bird flu strain around its capital city, a government agriculture official said on Wednesday. Chief of Veterinarian Department Kao Phal said the outbreaks occurred in February at one farm in Takeo province and at two farms in Kandal province.
— DPA

Plane crashes
into house
LOS ANGELES: A small airplane slammed into a house in a crashed Los Angeles neighbourhood, but no residents appeared to be hurt, fire officials have said. A private light plane ploughed into a family home in the Mar Vista, area near the city’s Santa Monica airport, in thick fog on Tuesday.
— AFP